Megan Wilkerson English 118c Fall 2012
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WILKERSON
Visual Literacy in the Digital Age
+ PLATO’S CAVE IN
CONTENTS:
“IT ALL STARTED WITH ONE ESSAY—ABOUT SOME OF THE PROBLEMS, AESTHETIC AND MORAL, POSED BY THE OMNIPRESENCE OF PHOTOGRAPHED IMAGES; BUT THE
TWO
INTRODUCTION
THREE EVIDENCE
MORE I THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT PHOTOGRAPHS ARE, THE MORE COMPLEX AND SUGGESTIVE THEY BECAME”- SONTAG
FIVE
SIX
MEGAN WILKERSON
TOURISM
NONINTERVENTION
SEVEN DESENSITIZATION
PROFESSOR STEFANS ENGLISH 118C 14 DECEMBER 2012
INTRODUCTION Susan Sontag’s collection of essays entitled “On Photography” has been accused of being everything from “prophetic genius” to “melodrama posing as criticism.” Many of the statements Sontag makes can be considered outrageous, offensive, and cynical. Critics have contemplated the reason Sontag entitled her collection “On Photography” as opposed to “Against Photography,” given the lack of English 118
EIGHT DEHUMANIZATION
NINE
IMAGE-JUNKIES
positive sentiment she presents on the subject, which she argues can be dehumanizing and desensitizing in some cases. Nevertheless, her innovative and controversial commentary on the subject revolutionizes the way we view photography as she expands on the ways in which the proliferation and popularity of photography has changed and continues to change the way we interact with the world and its experiences. 2
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Visual Literacy in the Digital Age
“HUMANKIND LINGERS UNGENERATELY IN PLATO’S CAVE, STILL REVELING, ITS AGE-OLD HABIT, IN MERE IMAGES OF THE TRUTH”
PHOTOGRAPHY AS EVIDENCE “The inventory started in 1839
way we view what is around
photographs
and since then just about
us, and even determining what
Holocaust victims from Nazi
everything
we choose to look at. One of
concentration camps. We have
photographed, or so it seems.”
the
of
learned about these atrocities,
Susan Sontag begins her essay
photography, Sontag argues, is
but seeing them has a much
by describing photographs as
its power to furnish evidence:
greater impact. These horrific
a collection of the world. This
“Something we hear about, but
images are now part of our
inventory
she
doubt, seems proven when
inventory
describes has taught us a “new
were shown a photograph of
evidence to these events.
visual code,” changing the
it.”
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has
of
images
been
greatest
Consider
strengths
the
of
and
emaciated
serve
as
alarming
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Visual Literacy in the Digital Age photography
achievements and milestones
photographic project from the
should serve as evidence that
in life is something that we
1930’s would take dozens of
something
that
naturally want to savor. Sontag
pictures of their subjects until
something exists, or that it
argues that it is suspicious for a
they felt they had captured just
existed at one point in time.
family to not have a camera in
the
“The
their
upheld
To
Sontag,
happened,
camera
record
household,
namely
right
expression
their
notions
about
this reason,
families with young children.
poverty.
photography is detrimental to
The action of photographing
Lange’s “Migrant Mother”, is
Beaurocratic societies.
ceremonies and special events
the
has
images.
justifies.” For
become
one
of
the
most
Perhaps
that
prolific
Dorothea of
these
components of the ceremony itself. For example, it would be very uncommon to attend a ceremony today that didn’t include
some
photographing.
sort
of
Evidence
provides us with the truth, and while many photographers are concerned with the truth, they are equally concerned with the relationship between art and It serves as a form of control and
surveillance:
”The
camera record incriminates.” Sontag
describes
photography as “a social rite, a defense against anxiety, and
a
tool
of
power.”
truth. Sontag describes how the members of the Farm Security
Administration “EVEN WHEN
PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE
“In deciding how a picture should look, in preferring one exposure
to
photographers
another, are
always
imposing standards on their subjects.”
Sontag
explains
that, even though the camera
MOST CONCERNED WITH
serves to capture reality in a
MIRRORING REALITY,
sense, not merely interpret it,
THEY ARE STILL
photographs
can
be
Photography and family life
HAUNTEDBY TACIT
considered an interpretation of
go hand-in-hand, because the
IMPERATIVES OF TASTE
the world as a painting or a
memorializing English 118
of
AND CONSCIENCE.”
drawing would be. 4
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Visual Literacy in the Digital Age
“THE MAN ADJUSTING LENSE TO TAKE JUST RIGHT FRAME OF HER SUFFEREING, MIGHT AS WELL BE A PREDATOR, ANOTHER VULTURE ON THE SCENE.”
HIS THE JUST
(RIGHT) THIS POSE WITH THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA HAS BECOME PROLIFIC TO THE POINT OF CLICHE. HOW MANY PICTURES JUST LIKE THIS DO YOU THINK HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE INVENTORY?
TOURISM & PHOTGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHS AS A COLLECTION OF THE WORLD “A
way
of
certifying
taking
that comes with travelling. Many tourists,
photographs is also a way of refusing it—by
Sontag claims, feel more at ease when they
limiting
the
put a camera between themselves and what
photogenic, by converting experience to a
is unfamiliar to them. Photography is
search
another way to give shape and control to an
experience for
the
to
experience, a
photogenic,
search by
for
converting
experience into an image, a souvenir.” Tourism,
experience.
perhaps more than anything, adds to our
appeals to people handicapped by a
inventory of images. Yet Sontag argues that
ruthless work ethic—Germans, Japanese,
tourists don’t just take pictures while they are on
and Americas. Using a camera appeases the
vacation to use as indisputable photographic
anxiety that the work-driven feel about not
evidence of their visit. Photographs “also help
working when they are on vacation and
people to take possession of a space in which
supposed to be having fun. They have
they are insecure.” The act of taking pictures on
something to do that is like a friendly
a trip can alleviate some of the disorientation
imitation of work: they can take pictures.”
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“The
method
especially
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PHOTOGRAPHY & NON-INTERVENTION fact that the photograph exists, it is evident that the photographer chooses the photograph. “Even though incompatible with intervention in a physical sense, using a camera is still a form of participation.” By photographic a subject or situation, Sontag argues, the photographer is not just passively observing, they are encouraging whatever is happening to keep happening. Kevin Carter was a South-African photojournalist who took this picture of a starving child and vulture in 1993. Although he won a Pulitzer Prize for this photograph, he was harshly criticized for taking the picture rather than helping the girl.
“THE MAN ADJUSTING HIS LENS TO TAKE JUST THE RIGHT FRAME OF HER SUFFERING, MIGHT JUST AS WELL BE A PREDATOR, ANOTHER VULTURE ON THE SCENE.” -ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
Sontag points out that photography is essentially an act of non-intervention. “The person who intervenes cannot record, the person who is recording cannot intervene.” In many cases, the photographer has the choice between the photograph and a life. Given the
Sontag essentially describes photography as having an inhumane aspect to it. ”To take a picture is to have an interest in things as they are, in the status quo remaining unchanged… including, when that is the interest, another person’s pain or misfortune.”
Visual Literacy in the Digital Age
Especially shocking the
with
such
photographs
suffering
victimized,
and
one
of the
would
PHOTOGRAPHY & DESENSITIZATION “To suffer is one thing; another
Sontag
thing
is
living
accuses
with
the
pornography of the same
images
of
offense. She argues that “the
does
not
assume a strong emotional
photographed
reaction from the viewer.
suffering,
Yet Sontag explains how
necessarily
these images of horror that
conscience and the ability to
repeated viewings, just as
exist within our inventory is
be compassionate. It can also
the
which
strengthen
shock
of
atrocities
photographed wears
off
surprise
with and
problematic. “Photographs
bemusement felt the first
shock insofar as the show
time
something
novel.
Unfortunately, keeps
getting
partly
through
the
ante
raised— the
very
proliferation of such images of horror.” The amount of exposure to these types of images causes a certain
“Once one has seen such images, one has started down the road of seeing more—and more. Images transfix. Images anesthetize.”
one
sees
a
pornographic movie wear off after one sees a few more.”
The
amount
of
suffering and horror in the inventory has given us a sense these
of
familiarity
images,
with
Sontag
describes. This familiarity
amount of desensitization.
makes the horrible seem
This
more ordinary.
emotional
reaction,
which Sontag refers to as our “quality of feeling” to images of the suffering, depends on the degree of our
familiarity
with
the
images. The more one is exposed photographs,
to
certain the
less
shocking it is each time they view a similar image. English 118
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Visual Literacy in the Digital Age
THE DEHUMANIZING ASPECT OF PHOTOGRAPHY Sontag claims that the camera is sold as a sort of “predatory weapon.” Of course, the camera is not capable of killing, yet Sontag refers to being photographed as a “soft murder” as she describes the dehumanizing aspect of photography: “There is something predatory in the act of taking a picture. To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them the can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically photographs
possessed.” taken
Consider by
the
paparazzi
photographers. They make a career out of what Sontag calls the “soft murder.” They intrude, trespass, distort, and exploit. In this sense,
they
are
predators
cameras, always violating.
with
their
In her essay, Sontag examines some of Diane Arbus’ ideas on the nature of photography, namely its “naughty” nature. “I always thought of photography as a naughty thing to do—that was one of my favorite things about it. Arbus describes that when she first tried photography she “felt very perverse.” Yet Sontag argues that to take a photograph requires some distance between the subject and the photographer. “The camera doesn’t rape, or even possess, though it may presume, intrude trespass, distort, exploit, and, at the farthest reach of metaphor, assassinate—all activities that, unlike the sexual push and shove, can be conducted from a distance, and with some detachment.”
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Visual Literacy in the Digital Age
THE NEW GENERATION OF IMAGE-JUNKIES “Photography implies that we
irresistible form of image
know about the world if we
pollution.” Sontag points
accept
camera
out that we don’t realize
records it. But this is the
the extent to which we are
opposite of understanding,
bombarded
which
photographs.
it
as
starts
the
from
not
with Today,
accepting the world as it
especially in advertising
looks.” Sontag describes the
and social media, images
great value placed on images
control
in our society. We don’t
Imagine if today we were
realize just how much we rely
cut off from all ability to
on photographs to give us
capture images. Virtually
information. “They tell one
every aspect of our lives
what there is; they make an
would change.
inventory.” explains
Yet
that
and
direct.
Santag
there
is
a
disconnect there is another side
to
people
photography use
more
that as
a
“fiction.” “Needing to have reality
confirmed
experience
and
enhanced
by
photographs is an aesthetic consumerism
to
which
everyone is now addicted. Industrial societies turn their citizens
into
junkies; English 118
image-
it is the most
“Mallarme said that everything in the world exists in order to end in a book. Today everything exists to end in a photograph.” 9